Asian Journal of Applied Sciences (ISSN: 2321 – 0893) Volume 9 – Issue 2, April 2021 Asian Online Journals (www.ajouronline.com) 127 Elemental Characterization of African Locust Beans (Parkia biglobosa) in Igbope, Oyo State of Nigeria Caleb Ayoade Aborisade 1,2 , Latif M. Bakare 3 , Fatai Olabanji Balogun 4 1 Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife Nigeria Email: caborisade [AT] yahoo.com 2 Department of Physical Sciences, First Technical University Ibadan, Nigeria Email: caborisade [AT] yahoo.com 3 Center for Energy Research and Development, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria Email: mlatif [AT] cerd.gov.ng 4 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oregon, Oregon, USA Email: fbalogun [AT] oregon.edu _________________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT--- African locus beans (Parkia biglobosa) tree is a perennial legume tree that grows naturally in Africa and one of the trees the Forest Rangers enforced that farmers must preserve in their farmland because of its usefulness. Parkia biglobosa when fermented can be used to produce Iru and other useful products. This work employed the Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) in the determination of major, minor and trace element constituents of leaves, seeds, stem in Parkia biglobosa from Igbope, using a 2.5 MeV proton ion beam analysis (IBA) facility. The samples contain nineteen (19) elements namely; Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Br, Sr, Y and Ba. Calcium has the highest average concentration 17183.2±25.8 ppm in the stem, followed by Sulphur 15361.7±20.0 ppm in the seed. The seed that is locally fermented to produce Iru has a higher concentration of Fe 1266.8±12.3 ppm. The results showed that Parkia biglobosa analysed in this work consist of several micro, major and trace elements of importance to human health. The plant is also free of harmful elements that can be hazardous to human health when consumed or used as herbal medicine. Keywords--- African locust bean, Parkia biglobosa, seed, leave, stem, elemental characterization _________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. INTRODUCTION African locust beans (Parkia biglobosa) tree is one of the naturally grown trees in Nigeria, it is perennial tree legume. It plays an important part in traditional agriculture, but has not entered commercial trade to any significant extent in Nigeria. In Igbope and its environs where the samples for this work were taken, it is one of the trees that farmers must preserve in their farm land (i.e. it must not be cut down or burned) and it grows naturally because the Forest Rangers will arrest and charge to court anybody that tamper with the tree because of the high value placed on the tree as a result of the usefulness of the products. The tree also improves soil fertility, its stem, seed, and leaves are used as traditional medicine. Parkia trees are found in Africa, South‐East Asia and tropical South‐America. In Malaysia and Indonesia, the whole pods, including seeds of Parkia biglobosa, are eaten raw or cooked as a vegetable known as petal. In West Africa, from Gambia to Cameroun including Nigeria, the beans of Parkia biglobosa, are widely fermented to the traditional dawadawa, while the yellow pericarp pulp is eaten as a fresh food, or as a supplement while taken pap and other foods. Traditionally, small quantities of dawadawa are used as a protein and fat‐rich flavoursome ingredient of the traditional soups and stews eaten in West Africa both at individual’s homes and food vendours. The seed of Parkia biglobosa tree is called “Iyere” in Yoruba while the fermented seed is called “Iru”. This Iru is one of the significant wellsprings of plant protein in Africa eating routine which is known as aged vegetable protein. Iru is expended in numerous African nations, particularly Nigeria. According to Teklehaimanot, (2004), the vital use of the